Biology

The College of Wooster is nationally recognized for its program of Independent Study,
and for more than fifty years the College has required that every graduate complete
a significant Independent Study project. The capacity for individual inquiry and expression
marks the liberally educated person, and the Independent Study program at Wooster
provides an opportunity through which this capacity may be nurtured. Independent Study
provides all students the opportunity to engage in an activity both personally meaningful
and appropriate to their individual fields and interests. It is not reserved for the
few. Independent Study is the culmination of a Wooster education and provides the
basis for a lifetime of independent learning.

Students begin in their first year to develop their abilities in writing, reading,
and critical thinking required for the project and explore various areas of intellectual
interest. Ideas for Independent Study are stimulated not only by course work in the
major but also by courses in other areas, informal exchanges with faculty and students,
visiting lectures, arts events, off-campus study, volunter work, and internship experiences.
Students beginning Independent Study are assigned a faculty advisor to serve as mentor,
guide, and critic.

Department or curriculum committee chairpersons will assign advisors after consultation
with the student and appropriate faculty and consideration of the topic the student
wishes to investigate. Students work closely with their advisors through regularly
scheduled conferences designed to assist, encourage, and challenge the participants
and to afford both students and advisors an opportunity to share the excitement of
discovery and expression in fields of mutual interest. Learning is approached as an
exploration shared by student and advisor alike, neither having all the answers, but
each enjoying immensely the opportunity to search for solutions.

The study of biology at Wooster culminates with three courses of Independent Study.
Each student works one-on-one with a faculty member to develop a proposal, complete
a yearlong research project, and write a thesis based on the results. In these individualized
research experiences, students develop the capacity for self-education, problem solving,
and effective communication. Students commonly conduct their Independent Study research
on campus, but many have worked off campus in conjunction with the Ohio Agricultural
Research and Development Center (Wooster), the National Institutes of Health and Mental
Health (Bethesda, Md.), The Cleveland Clinic, or in a variety of NSF-sponsored Undergraduate
Research Experiences across the country. Biology I.S. projects cover a wide range
of topics, including the effects of air pollution on lichen populations, the role
of the protein neurontin-1 in mediating hyperexcitation of cultured nerve cells, and
the elucidation of gene function using RNA interference. Student projects have tracked
the factors contributing to range restriction of Blanchard’s cricket frog in Ohio,
explored the role of early experience in development of the stress response in wild
animals, and developed a yeast-based assay to explore the function of pathogen proteins.
Wooster under¬graduates have published their research in such journals as Evolution,
Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, Comparative
Biochemistry and Physiology, The Journal of Avian Biology, and the Journal of Neurology,
and regularly present their results at professional meetings such as the Society for
Integrative and Comparative Biology, the Ecological Society of America, the Endocrine
Society, and the Society for Neuroscience, or at workshops and symposia.